NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York again sought to force fast
food chains to display calorie counts on their menu boards on
Tuesday after a federal judge quashed a similar proposal last
year.

The rule affects restaurants with 15 or more locations
nationwide such as fast-food chains Burger King, McDonald's and
Wendy's but also casual dining chains such as Ruby Tuesday and
IHOP Corp's Applebee's.

The city believes the new rule will be allowed because it
subjects all restaurants with more than 15 locations to the
same requirement while its previous rule only affected
restaurants that were following voluntary federal nutritional
labeling guidelines.

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The Board of Health adopted the regulation in an attempt to
combat obesity. The same board banned artery-clogging
trans-fats from New York City restaurants in 2006 and smoking
in bars and restaurants in 2003.

A regulation on posting calorie counts was adopted by the
city in 2006 but thrown out by a federal judge in September
because it overstepped federal guidelines on nutrition
labeling.

"Obesity is the only major health problem in the country
and in New York City that is getting worse rapidly," New York
City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said.

The fast food industry opposes the measure, which is due to
take effect on March 31, on the grounds it would overly
complicate menus and provide little benefit to consumers.

"We support the concept of providing nutritional
information for all the products we serve, and we already do
that (on posters in restaurants and on the company Web site),"
said Denny Lynch a spokesman Wendy's International, the No. 3
U.S. hamburger chain.

Lynch said the rule would confuse consumers who customize
sandwiches with condiments and different kinds of meat.

Burger King, the second largest U.S. hamburger chain,
already puts the information on posters in each restaurant.

McDonald's Corp., the largest hamburger chain in the world,
puts nutritional information such as calories on some packaging
and posts the information online.